TUTORIAL - Contrasting Contrast paints

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I post a lot on my painting methods but i spotted on some discussion for the Blacklist minis Kickstarter that there are some total non painters who are now looking at owning over 200 models with no idea how to paint them.

I have mentioned on other posts that i use a Contrast method to paint basic models or models that are not heroes - so random minions, wandering monsters, basic models etc. I also have made a decision to do all my Frostgrave models with contrast, including the heroes, as a way to get better at using contrast.

Below is a basic tutorial on using contrast, and the difference. I am not the best painter out there, but i do ok, have won a few awards but will never trouble the top levels. But as a gaming painter, i am teaching myself to paint faster as i have stacks of models to paint (along side Fantasy series 1 arriving a couple weeks ago, Zombicide 2nd Ed just arrived and Reaper Bones 5 is in the post) and table top quality is good enough.

I did this example on a Naga, its a larger model, so nice and easy to see, its also not super complicated as there are not lots of areas to paint.

Prep:

I cleaned up mold lines with a sharp blade, i usually use a scalpel blade, as this kind of plastic seems to powder when filed. Not critical but it does make things look better.

Undercoat

I dont have a photo of this (i decided to do this tutorial after i did the base coats).

You have 2 options, do a base contrast undercoat - either greyseer or wraithbone (i used wraith bone for this one) or do a zenithal.

I did a zenithal on this one, with Army painter Leather brown for the base and then zenithal (on an angle to only catch the higher areas) with Wraith bone. this means that there is a bit of brown in the lower and deeper areas, making it easier to get good shading. but its not critical.

To show this i have an Imp i did this on, and you can also see it the base of the Naga.

Contrast Base

So now block in the colours.

  • I used all GW contrast paints.

  • Red - Blood Angels Red

  • Bone and Teeth - Skeleton Bone

  • Fleshy bits - Aggaros Dunes

  • Eyes - Iyanden Yellow

  • Tongue - Mago Purple

the key with the contrast is to do nice clean coat, dont slather on too much as it can pool badly, and dont go back over an area if you have put paint there as it can make marks as it moves part dried paint. You can see this on the right side (looking at it) of the flesh bits, as it looks a bit darker, i went back over it).

If you stop here, its fine, this model is absolutely good enough for the table, and now you can just paint the base black and put on grass flock if you want.

There is not much difference between the flesh and the bone, its a bit subtle, the highlights change this.

Highlights

If you decied to go on you can add in highlights to accentuate the top edges. I think it looks better and so i tend to do it.

Red: On the red i start to mix in a red, going to lighter red, then a little orange or yellow. I used Scale75 for this, but GW stuff is fine.

Bone: I used P3 bone up to their offwhite but the GW bone colours work as well.

Flesh: i used army painter banshee brown then some white

Eyes: I just used some bright yellow

For the black stripes i used Black Templar contrast paint and then added in some grey.

The highlights are not super visible on this, but you should be able to see the difference, its more stark in person but im not great at photos.

Summary:

Below is a comparison - i think the highlighted model looks better, but it took another 1-1.5 hours, so it depends on what you want to do.

But the key is that contrast only looks perfectly fine and good enough for the table. The paints take practice, and some are better than others, so you need to work with them. there are heaps of tutorials on youtube and GW stores will help (but only on their models).

Good luck with your painting.